Wish you were here...

Or I was there...

Something to that effect.

So really I wanted to show you a picture of us on the beach, with big fat coconuts, and swaying palm trees. But we haven't quite made it there. Soon, I am told.

Here is our holiday recap letter we didnt send:

Things here in Brazil are going really well. Sidnei opened his own company and literally hasn't stopped since he started! We have felt so truly blessed because of this! I am so proud of him and how hard he has been working! Not to mention so impressed because half the time, I'm all, "I didn't know you knew how to do that!"

I am adjusting well, though I am really feeling 'saudades' about missing Christmas back home. My Portuguese has really come along in the last couple of months, especially the ability to understand! (Thank goodness!) I'm not working yet, but we have high hopes that I will start teaching at an English school soon! I have been keeping busy learning how to be domestically fabulous and finding my way around centro (downtown) so that I can shop pay bills.

We are so very grateful to be spending the holidays together this year! It has been a long trek, though our journey has just begun, and we are looking forward to enjoying many more holidays together! We would be remiss not to tell you how grateful we are for all the support you gave us these past (almost) 2 years! We love being able to have the internet and keep in touch with you all!

All of our love,

Always playing catch up!

I can't believe it's been over a month since I posted! The next couple of days, I'll be playing catch up! So today I will post pictures of my super cute nephew's 2nd birthday party. This was at the end of last month (the 28th) and it was so fun because he was so excited.

Just so you know, people blow out kid's birthdays BIG time here. I think I mentioned this before. It is themed, with hundreds of balloons, decorations, huge cakes, and lots of candies. It is quite a spectacular to behold. However, this year Israel's parents decided to keep it simple with just family. So we DIY everything. It didn't take long and they saved a LOT of money. They want to wait until he remembers it all which I think is very wise. The HUGE birthdays here costs thousands of reais. And thousands of anything (dollars, pounds, reais) are just hard to come by these days.

So without further ado, check out how excited this little boy was. He is so stinking cute and has gotten so big since I've been here. It has been fun to watch him learn and grow every day (My MIL takes care of Israel every day Tues-Sat 8-7). And to be honest, he has taught me a lot of portuguese. We are learning together!

Israel LOVES to sing and clap. Here he is waiting for us to begin singing!

Here I think I was watching Israel open presents!

I love this photo because when Israel wants to be cute, he cocks his head to the side just like this!

This is the one where my husband thinks it's funny to make faces and I don't know. If there were a picture after this, I would NOT be amused. Though I am now. But at the time, I was tired. See?

I got Israel "Pingu" the Penguin. He watches Pingu on his DVD. Pingu doesn't actually talk in a specific language. More like the teacher from Charlie Brown. You don't know what the heck she's saying but you get the gist? So Israel is in LOVE with Pingu. He was SO excited. He is still carrying it around and loves when Sidnei will play and make the noises for him!

Singing and clapping to Parabens..with all of his beloved presents on the table with him!

This is the third time he's going to blow out the candles! We sang to him three times that night! He kept saying mais, mais (more,more)! It was so funny! I'm so glad he had fun!


One of the funniest things about Israel turning two, is that you can ask in him Portuguese or in English how old he is and he will answer in English and say TWO (and hold up three fingers)! And if you ask him to say dois, he will say NO! Two! Love it!